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25.2.2016 Jennifer Aksu kiri
Dear all, as February is slowly fading out, COMENIUS+ deadlines are approaching. I hope you all had a chance to get in contact with a school suitable as a partner and also your colleagues and heads to sound out chances for QuerKlang within your institution. After numerous feedback sessions with EU consultancy and colleagues in Berlin we are now sending you the final effort to install a QuerKlang-exchange-Network in Europe with you. We have to hand in the projetc as key action 2 "COOPERATION FOR THE EXCHANGE OF GOOD PRACTICES", as a strategic alliance to transfer best practices, as they do not judge an advancement of an existing project an INNOVATION (what, actually, we do not fully agree with). In focus of the cooperation are the teachers, students + university and composers/ musicians who will be part of exchanging the good practice of QuerKlang. Each local team will consist of one coordinator/ researcher (Uni), one teacher (school), one student (Uni) and one composer/ musician (freelancer or working at the University). We are suggesting a two-year-process that embraces six meetings (about one per quarter year) to transfer the basic QK frame-work, advance its methodology according the partners' specific contexts, contemplate different factors (for QK's success) from diverse perspectives, implement QK in each partner's context and iterate this implementation in a second run. Its final step will be a "mini-conference" (a format that MATRIX in Leuven is experimenting with) where lessons learned will be shared with invited partners and future possibilities will be evaluated. The project is centered around the possibilities to try out a well-tested highly complex methodology (there is no guide line anymore to be written, as Intellectual Outputs cannot be applied for in Best Practice projects, sadly) that will enrich, first of all, a professional sphere: the curricula, contacts, individual profiles and collaborations both on a local and trans-European level. But how does it enrich each of our individual contexts exactly? For Kulturkontakte - Kerstin and me - it is the chance to test and prove that QuerKlang is a methodology that can work anywhere. That is crucial to us and our work as we proclaim QK to be a universal method that, if implemented fully, provides unique experiences and possibilities for all participants and stakeholders. If we can prove this our range of affect will broaden widely. (But before we can do so we have to prove it.) Of course we have also collected manyfold reasons for the different partners and national contexts, among others: In Greece and Portugal both higher education and school education suffer from austerity policies, leaving public Universities and schools with no budget for experiments or innovations, especially in cultural education. Belgium has launched a new school philosophy "De Breede School" (The broad school), embracing multiple methods to support children with different skills, to train teachers specifically, to foster bonds between stakeholders and the school. But what is your personal, institutional, professional interest and profit to take part in this network? What is your special (super) power you bring in, in order to realise this experiment? We need to know this to be able to advocate for all of our partners within the application. As you will see we have attached a part of the application form that we would like you to fill in. It is questions onto your institution and the person taking part from it, their qualification and specialty indispensable for this application. But this does not only apply to you, but to the SCHOOLS that will be part of your TEAM, too. But before we come to the long list that needs to be provided for the application, we want to explain the process and activities and with that responsibilities and tasks for each partner as well as the budget provided by the EU for each partner's efforts. There are the usual basic parts of QuerKlang, that are both activities in the big round and in local teams: * an introductory seminar to exchange, discuss and train the basic methodology and hands-on tools * a series of lessons / process within a school class * a concert at the end * reflections to evaluate and support others, recognise and celebrate the achievements of individuals and teams (each partner will have to HOST ONE MEETING, either reflection or kick-off) What we would like to add to these basics are tools and activities especially supporting the exchange of experiences and the documentation of feedback and new ideas/ innovations: * a Kick-Off meeting: We know all of you. But most of you have only met virtually. Before we start with a two-year-collaboration we would like to meet together, discuss the process, the online representation of the project, communication efforts, ideas and interests on/ for QuerKlang. We want to design a procedure together, fill a frame with life that we now virtually formulate for the application. * a log book. Like a personal diary that is filled-in regularly with thoughts, experiences, critique, links and ideas. That could be both written and maybe sound based (voice recordings). * a series of essays that contemplate on different factors that decide on QuerKlang's success or failure (i.e. "On Quality" ; "On Obstacles" ; "On Role-taking" ; "On Teamwork" etc) Each local team is supposed to write ONE essay (one person or in a small group). * a mini-conference to wrap up the cooperation and to try a future outlook (the final reflection is added to this conference, so travel costs will be covered for all partners) To understand the workload for each partner we are attaching a SUGGESTION for work packages and responsibilities. Now, some work packages contain multiple persons in charge - at the end it would be good to have ONLY ONE person who, on the paper, is responsible. Please discuss this in your team or make a suggestion. Our experience shows that mostly the Universities and/ or Music Center/Association is the partner who coordinates the team. University staff/researcher are used to guid teams, coordinate group work and focus/ lead communication. They are also the ones that are multipliers for the QuerKlang idea on an institutional level that defines the field of teaching and the future teachers efforts, as they are the ones initially training and influencing young teachers. The University/ Music Center is also well-connected to professional musicians/composers, so they are the perfect link between schools and practitioners. With this we just want to show that the Uni/ Music Centers play a key role in this project. There are the following budgets in EUROS - based on COMENIUS approved lump sums - for each partner, including all travel costs (the Univ. paying for the staff, student and composer), accommodation, management, coordination, communication, per diems for seminar, meetings you are hosting: BUDGET: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ETqSdxo9TDjhv0JzTm6FAgi_eRj9NS1H0qYd8lyRKX0/edit?usp=sharing Austria :Uni - 15.105 :School - 8.135 Belgium :Matrix - 17.280 :School - 8.135 Estonia :Arnold Schönberg Society - 15.660 :School - 8.320 Germany :Kulturkontakte - 28.045 (inlc. fees for external experts) :UdK - 14.505 :School - 7.935 Greece :Uni (+ Library as silent partner) - 16.845 :School - 8.590 Portugal :Uni - 16.470 :School - 8.590 Concerning the budget, it is crucial to know that these are lump-sums on the basis of National references and distance to the place each team travels to. As these are lump-sums, we do not have to prove the exact amount spent. So if travelling and accommodation is cheaper than the lump-sum granted, there is a good chance of saving a bit every now and then. Also it is crucial to negotiate with your partners (the school in particular) whether you, as the Uni/ Music C. will share the school's amount for management (which is 4875 Euros for each partner), as the Uni/ Music C. is likely to take greater efforts in coordination and communication on behalf of the team. The composer could also be paid out of the school's management budget, if he/she is not employed by the University anyways. If you follow the links below we have summed up the QUESTIONS FOR PARTNERS (taken from the Application Form), QUESTIONS f. PARTNERS https://docs.google.com/document/d/13IS6vu2TRjzRKyK_BMbUl5w3v-7WH2MWyxzF78HwUc0/edit?usp=sharing and the WORKLOAD for each TEAM/ PARTNER. WORKLOAD https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Atf1JCke0w6pT4sMQv2TxzyTrgYT4y7MvabWGr_XXLs/edit?usp=sharing Following later on Thursday is also a preliminary timeplan. Both timeplan and Workload are suggestions. Please let us know if schedule and responsibilities work for you. The questions for partners have to be answered by you for your institution and by the school that will take part. Please make sure to answer them completely. In order to complete the application, please fill in the QUESTIONS FOR PARTNERS until March 21st 2016. Attached you will find again the MANDATES to be filled in by your Institution and the SCHOOL. The GRANT AGREEMENT that the mandate refers to is the agreement WE, as the coordinators, will agree to with the EU if the project is funded. The agreement states that we will spend, distribute and control the money as illustrated within the project application. The budget that represents expenses that we are asking for is also linked above. The agreement we would sign once the project is granted, is attached. There are no costs stated in this agreement that the partners have to supply (except for us, Matrix and Uni. of Athens who have a little self-contribution for extra experts/ material, that we are trying to raise on top from a foundation here or that could be in kind contributions from the organisations). Please provide the MANDATES until March 25th 2016. To make the project more tangible we will try to provide the application form with first texts and the budget next week so you can take it to discuss and advertise the project among your prospect team. The application advocates strongly for the great number (13!) and backgrounds of this diverse conglumerat of partners. Their differences and specialities - both know-how and national-context wise - make this transfer tempting. So if one of the partners drops out at one stage it will be very difficult for us to reframe the project's scale. Please let us know early enough - until MARCH 7th - if this projet process still is in line with your interest or not. I know, this has been a massively long email and I guess there is a lot to digest, discuss, contemplate on. I am happy to answer all questions, concerns and feedback from Monday onwards. There is nothing set in stone and everything that is in the application can still be changed - even after the grant has been accepted. So let's try to be as tangible as possible - even if we do not know the exact procedure yet. All the best, Jennifer -- Jennifer Aksu k&k kultkom KULTURMANAGEMENT und KOMMUNIKATION Crellestr. 22 10827 Berlin aksu@kultkom.de www.kultkom.de Telefon: 030 - 78 70 3350